This invention relates generally to the treatment of landfills to inhibit undesirable travel of gases and liquids. More particularly, this invention relates to a method and apparatus for application of a treatment composition to inhibit undesirable fluid flow to reduce groundwater contamination and methane gas leaks.
Various governmental regulations relate to the construction and operation of landfills. Many of these regulations relate to measures intended to reduce contamination of groundwater and the emission of undesirable gases generated by the landfill, such as methane gas. For example, groundwater monitoring involves testing groundwater wells to determine whether waste materials have escaped from the landfill.
The present invention is directed to methods and apparatus for reducing the escape of liquids and gases from landfills.
In a preferred embodiment, the method includes the steps of preparing a water soluble resin solution, preparing a catalyst solution, and introducing separate streams of the resin and the catalyst into the landfill formation in a manner that avoids mixing air into the resin and catalyst streams and promotes mixing of the resin and catalyst streams to yield a substantially fluid impervious treatment substrate within desired locations in the landfill formations to inhibit effusion of gas and travel of liquids therein.
The apparatus preferably includes a source of a pressurized stream of resin solution, a source of a pressurized stream of a catalyst solution, and a probe. The probe separately conveys the stream of the resin solution and the stream of the catalyst solution within the probe toward a desired location in the landfill formation corresponding to the location of one or more of the cavities and thereafter ejects the streams of resin and catalyst into the desired location in the landfill in a manner that promotes travel of the resin and catalyst into one or more of the cavities and promotes mixing of the catalyst and the resin streams. This mixing promotes reaction of the resin and catalyst to yield a substantially fluid impervious treatment substrate within one or more of the cavities in the landfill formation to inhibit effusion of gas and travel of liquids therein.
The probe has separate resin and catalyst inlets in flow communication with respective and separate resin and catalyst flow paths within the probe, and separate resin and catalyst outlets in flow communication with the resin and catalyst flow paths, respectively, and the formation for ejecting the resin and catalyst from the probe. Resin outlets are located adjacent catalyst outlets and positioned such that the ejected resin and catalyst contact one another and form a stream of resin and catalyst that promotes mixing of ejected resin with ejected catalyst within the formation.